1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus, an image forming method, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional image forming apparatus, a sheet feeding operation is performed by a sheet feeding part that uses, for example, a stepping motor, in which the sheet feeding part feeds a sheet(s) of paper placed on a sheet stacking part. In a case where the sheet is not detected by a sheet detecting part situated on a sheet conveying path within a predetermined period of time, the sheet feeding operation is retried (hereinafter referred to as “sheet-feed retry operation”) for a plural number of times. When retrying the sheet feeding operation, the number of rotations of the stepping motor is gradually increased, in which the stepping motor is driven below a predetermined number of rotations (rotational speed) until a front end of the sheet is detected. After the front end of the sheet is detected, the number of rotations is gradually increased to that of a normal driving state (See Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 11-010972).
However, with the conventional image forming apparatus, the sheet-feed retry operation is executed after having the sheet detecting part wait for a predetermined period of time to elapse. Therefore, it takes a long time for a single sheet-feed retry operation to be executed. As a result, in a case, for example, where a sheet feeding roller is worn out, a further amount of time would be required since the sheet-feed retry operation is executed repetitively until the front end of the sheet can be detected.